Patience
by Mermes
Summary: Flora is told that the Professor and Luke are leaving on the Molentary Express, and she decides to go after them. On the way she collides into a mysterious young man. Who could it be?


**I'm finally back!**

**Happy New Year to all of you! I hope 2012 will be an awesome year for all of us! :)**

**I promised a Flora/Clive one-shot, so here it is. It was hard to write, so I think I'll stick to writing Lando/Sharon in the future.**

**By the way, I dedicate this fanfic to ChocoboMuffins for being such an awesome author and online-buddy :)**

**Disclaimer: As much as I would love to say that I own Clive, I sadly don't. Some cool Japanese dude owns everything T_T**

**Happy reading!**

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><p>Flora Reinhold had always been a patient young woman.<p>

_"Patience is a virtue, Flora, dear,"_ her father used to say, when Flora was barely five years old. And she listened, she learned to be patient. She was patient when her father died and she had to listen to every person in the village, who all said they felt terribly sorry for her, even if they didn't really mean it. She was patient when she had to hide in that tower. She was patient when the Professor and Luke had to leave the house and didn't take her with them.

But this was just too much.

"Gone? What do you mean?" she asked incredulously.

"I've already told you, girl, they left for the train station to board that Molentary Express train twenty minutes ago. Now be quiet and let me work."

Flora was sitting on a sofa in the Professor's office in Gressenheller University. He'd told her to wait there while he and Luke went to visit a friend (some sort of doctor), and she had done so.

Patiently.

Very, very patiently.

She lost track of the amount of time she'd been there. One hour? Two? Anyway, it had come as a great shock to her when the door banged open and two men, one quite skinny and the other small and plump, had stepped into the room. They had identified themselves (well, the skinny man had done all of the talking) as the Scotland Yard police.

Flora really couldn't care less. She was about to leave when they told her that the Professor and Luke had gone to the train station, which made her freeze.

Didn't people go to train stations when they were... leaving?

Were the Professor and Luke going on an adventure, leaving Flora all alone?

As soon as that thought crossed her mind, Flora ran out of the office, quickly got out of the University and got on a cab.

If the Professor and Luke were leaving, they weren't going to leave her behind.

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><p>Clive was bored.<p>

All around him, people were talking excitedly, looking at train timetables and, all in all, not letting him work. He'd lost count of the number of times he'd been pushed, making his pen drop to the floor.

How the hell was he supposed to get the bloody report finished on time?

Damn his boss for making him site about that fancy train, the Molentary Express. He could be doing more productive things, things that were actually worthwhile.

_'Like plotting Bill Hawk's death,'_ he thought, smirking.

He glanced at his watch, cursing when he saw that he only had a few minutes before the train left, and bent down to pick up his pen from the floor for the twentieth time.

_Bam!_

Someone crashed into him, making him loose his balance and land on the floor face-first. Before his brain could process what had happened, he heard a yelp and something heavy fell on his back, knocking the air out of his lungs.

Suddenly, the weight on his back disappeared.

"O-oh my goodness, I'm so sorry! Are you all right?" asked a voice. A girl's voice.

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><p>Flora's cheeks were burning.<p>

She'd been so busy thinking that she was going to miss the train that she hadn't noticed the man in front of her. Oh, how could she have been so careless? She'd managed to stutter an apology, biting her lip as the young man got up. Seeing his face, her cheeks reddened even more. He was quite handsome, with untidy brown hair and blue eyes. Standing up, he was almost a head taller than Flora.

He was glaring daggers at her, too.

"You could've watched where you were going!" he snapped.

Despite her usually shy demeanor, Flora couldn't help feeling her temper rise at the boy's rude behavior. She'd apologized, hadn't she?

"Well, you shouldn't have been standing in the middle of the platform!" she said angrily.

"It was your fault we fell to the floor!"

"I said I was sorry!"

"Oh, and being sorry fixes everything, doesn't it, you silly little girl?"

Flora was taken aback by his insult. Silly little girl? Her? She began to feel her eyes burning and she pursed her lips, trying to hold back tears. She turned around and headed towards the next platform, where the Molentary Express was.

It took her a few seconds to realize that the boy was following her.

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><p>Damn that girl.<p>

As she walked away without another word, Clive noticed that her eyes were too bright, her lips were pressed firmly together, her hands clenched into fists.

Oh shit, he'd made her cry.

He immediately felt guilty. His father had taught him to always treat women with respect, and here was Clive, insulting the first woman he'd talked to in ages. She was quite pretty, too.

But her apologizing had ticked him off. A lot of people had told him they were sorry after his parents died, even if they didn't mean it. They just said they were sorry, as if that would make it all better. As if that would bring his parents back. He hated it when people said those two words to him.

Without a second thought, he ran after the girl, who was about to get on that Molentary Express train. Clive knew he was supposed to be working, but he didn't give a damn.

_'Screw the report,'_ he thought.

"Hey, wait!" he called.

The girl turned to look at him, eyes narrowed.

Clive took a deep breath, feeling glad that she hadn't slapped him yet.

"Listen, I'm sorry. I was very rude-"

"Yes, you were," the girl interrupted, smiling slightly.

Clive felt the corner of his mouth twitch. The girl's smile was contagious. Now that she didn't look as angry as before, Clive couldn't felt liking her.

"And I wanted to apologize for my behavior. Am I forgiven, Miss?" he asked, a small smile on his lips.

The girl's smile widened. "Well, you have apologized... So yes, you're forgiven."

As he had seen his father do to his mother many times, Clive took the girl's hand and kissed it gently. "Thank you very much," he said, winking.

The girl blushed and opened her mouth to say something, but she quickly closed it as a shrill whistle was heard.

"All aboard the Molentary Express!" someone shouted.

With a little wave at Clive, the girl quickly got onto the train before it began moving, leaving the boy somewhat disappointed. He'd actually managed to have an interesting conversation with someone that wasn't Dimitri, and now he'd probably never see the girl again.

Damn his luck.

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><p>As the train began moving, Flora leaned out of the window to get one last look at the boy, He was still standing on the platform, staring at her.<p>

She had an idea.

"Flora!" she yelled at him.

He raised an eyebrow, confused.

"My name is Flora!" she yelled, grinning as she saw that he'd understood.

He gave her a thumbs-up before yelling something back, but Flora didn't hear him over the sound of the train's whistle.

Feeling disappointed, she went to find her compartment. It was a shame, really. She'd probably never see the boy again...

How very wrong she was.

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><p><strong>And I FINALLY finished this. So, people, what do you think of it?<strong>

**You know what day it is tomorrow? January 4th. You know what happens on January 4th? It's my birthday. You know what would make awesome presents?**

**REVIEWS! :3**


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